Wednesday, March 2, 2011

ferment updates

Well, it has kind of been a week of failures in the 'ol fermenting front. To make myself feel better, I am blaming the cold weather rather than my lack of skill. I'm pretty sure it's not because my house is too sterile. There actually isn't any skill involved so I'm betting on the weather.

My honey wine never started bubbling as expected. Rather than giving up, I went ahead and added half of the packet of the champagne yeast to it. It started bubbling so I put it in the gallon jug with an airlock, and I hope it's ready to drink in a few weeks. I will certainly try again in a few weeks when the weather is a little warmer; hopefully then the wild yeast in the air will be more active.

The dosas were also a failure. The recipe called for a whole bunch of cilantro, which was just too much. The batter was supposed to be thinner. As I am sitting her typing this, I am actually realizing that I halved the recipe so I used twice as much cilantro as I was supposed to. Yes!!! That makes me very happy because I really liked the taste of the cooked (failed) dosas, but they wouldn't stick together like pancakes, as they were supposed to. So...that means I will definitely try those again, too!

The sauerruben is delicious. It is just like sauerkraut, with just salt and caraway seeds, but it is made with turnips instead of cabbage. Molly and I shared a bowl today--we both loved it.

1 comment:

Too bad the dosas didn't turn out. I have been waiting to hear about them because I want to try and make them soon. It's good that you discovered the problem. The recipes I've seen call for fenugreek which I can't find around here, so maybe I will try with some cilantro- but not too much. :)